This work is supposed to be the most comprehensive guide about mining in EvE Online as possible. Of course it's not complete, and my written English is not as good as I think it to be
but it's information which is valauble, not the language So, here you go...
After finishing the tutorial, you will have a small amount of ISK to start your life in EvE universe. You will need work to make your wallet thick. There are many paths you can choose, both legal and illegal. One of the safest way to get rich is mining. It's not that fun as killing pirates, but a bit of planning and knowledge can make it a good way to make big ISK.
The Ships
Starting out, you have a ship with poor quality weapons and basic mining laser. It's not enough to get you out of trouble or make large amounts of cash either. You should upgrade your ship and its modules as fast as possible.
First of all, get a decent mining vessel. Skill up for your race Frigates and pick up the one with the biggest cargohold. For Gallente suitable mining frigate is Imicus. Now buy two mining lasers. Keep in mind, that you also need to train Mining as this increases your mining yield and enables you to use more advanced equipment.
Now you can go and do some mining. After you made some ISK, you should consider Can-Mining. You need to skill up Frigates to level III, so you can train Industrials. These are big transport ships, which can easily haul large amounts of ore. You need about 500.000 ISK to buy an Indy. The best choice for Gallente is Iteron Mark III (but before you skill up in Industrials, get Itty Mark I). You should also change your frigate now, as you won't need big cargo hold anymore. Look for bonuses that increase mining yield or reduce mining laser capacitor use. When playing Gallente, your choice is Navitas (and yes, it's cheaper than Imicus). Fit it with your Mining Lasers. You should now be able to fit Miner II's. Navitas offers yield bonus for miners – each level of Gallente Frigates gives you 20% more yield, so if you have Frigs lvl III you will get 3,2 mining lasers output instead of 2
But what to do with ore you ask – jettison it! This will make a huge container (27500 m3; remember that it's valid only 1,5-2 hours), where you can store your freshly mined ore. This requires some clicking, but this way you won't have to go back to your base every few minutes. When your can is full, go to your base and switch ship from the frig to indy. Go back to your can (it's good idea to bookmark it, check bookmarking below) and move the ore from it to your indy's hold. Haul it to the base and repeat the process if necessary.
Barge Mining requires large amounts of ISK and lot of training, but it can prove profitable. You should train following skills: Science, Industry, Mining, Astrogeology and Finally Mining Barges. Don't buy Procurer yet, it's not really worth it. Train for Medium Barge – Retriever. This lumbering beast can full its holds every 3 minutes, so you need to hire a hauler or do can mining as before. Remember that barges are *VERY* slow and vulnerable. If solo mining (check below) your choice would be few drones for protection – Hobgoblins + Acolytes or Hammerheads. That will keep you safe enough in most .5 areas.
The PC and NPC Pirates vs. Miners
Smart guys stay well clear of the big kids. The veterans know that newbies don't exactly pack a punch. So, like the mean guys before them, they will gleefully teach you a few lessons about the circle of life even without your invitation!
High security level, of about 0.8 to 1.0 means that it is safe enough for the new guys to go about their business without being constantly paranoid about pirates.
Newbies should make sure they don't head straight off to more than five gate jumps. Plus, a region with a less than 30 other players would be great. Of course, having a zone to yourself would be the best of all.
Remember about Rats – NPC pirates. You will probably be able to handle them in 0.5 areas, but you can't possibly defeat a cruiser with Mining Barge or a cruiser fitted with mining lasers only. Drones will be a smart choice.
The Ores
It would be a headache to try and remember all the ores and their values, but as a rule of the thumb it can be handy and easy to remember that the ores values are in the set in alphabetical order, with a few exceptions (Spodumain etc.). So basically, as you go lower in the alphabets the ore values decrease as well.
Veldspar and Scordite can virtually be mined in any region. However, Kernite and Pyroxeres is specific to Amarr/Caldari space. Similarly, Plagioclase and Omber can be mined in Caldari, Gallente and Minmatar space.
Don't drool over the ore you mine. As a matter of fact, some ores are more valuable than others, but time is more valuable than anything else. Besides, if you ever read the news, then you'll have read about 'blood diamonds' and 'gold rushes,' but never about 'conflict aluminum' or 'blood copper.' At the beginning of the twentieth century, the world's richest man was Andrew Carnegie, and he built his fortune on iron and steel. Build yours on speed, thrift, and efficiency!
More information about ores: Ores vs Security.
The Regions - To Risk or Not to Risk
As a rule, the low security areas have more valuable ores than higher security levels. The 0.0 rating is actually anything from 0.0 to 1.0, but to keep the ores hidden the information is never displayed to give any hints.
Low security area stations usually pay higher for your ore than high security areas. But there are risks attached to this profit making scheme. Firstly you'll be in an area where there won't be any patrol guards to watch your back while you do the digging. So there will be all the more risk of being 'podded' while you are at work!
Secondly, though the ores will be more valuable and the prices will be high, but guys running the security in the region will have to be paid their share as well. So the hidden costs have to be kept in mind when you decide make big ISKs.
Barge Mining is not a good idea without proper defenses in 0.4 and lower zones.
Group Mining
Interact with other players is the beauty of an MMORPG. Mining is a job you can do in groups as well. A well planned party can in fact make it a more than worthwhile effort if they stick to their tasks.
To mine in groups, the first thing has to assigning roles to individuals. The player attributes matter a lot in this so the better miners should always be mining instead of hauling the ores to the stations. While the military minded individuals can add a lot of security to your group's profits.
For security, it is important that the guard's ship is well equipped to handle pirates and NPCs alike. And while there is nothing else to do, the guard should always give a helping hand in the mining to max the yield! Using mining drones is a very good idea.
Mining in low-sec areas
Mining in low security zones is much more demanding than mining in high-sec. First of all you need a group of people you can trust. Solo mining in 0.0 is next to impossible. You will need guards, best if they are flying battleships. You will need haulers and it really helps if you have a POS Outpost nearby.
Only experienced players should enter 0.0, because a lot of skills come in handy when mining in 0.0. First of all you probably want to go to your mining post in one piece, so your ship must warp quickly, with no margin for error. It's very useful to have at least 3 warp stabs on board, and some nanofiber structure, too (it increases overall ship agility). ECM's are not recommended, because you'll probably get caught by 10 – 15 player groups, so it would be of no use. When travelling through low sec it's also recommended to mask your signature. How would you do this? By putting offline/unfitting all unnecessary modules, mainly weapons, because they make your signature a lot biggger and lock-on time on your ship is thereby shorter.
Always try travelling in bigger groups, as this will make your opponents think twice before engaging you. Bookmarks or so called instajumps might come in handy.
Miners should fly at least cruisers or battlecruisers, as they have much better defenses than Mining Barges, with only slightly less mining yield. Of course you can Barge Mine in 0.0, but you have to consider the fact that you probably will loose your ship. Best choice are Miner II's and Deep Core Miners. Mining Drones will increase yield, too. Hope lies with Exhumers (Tech II Mining Barges), as they have very good defenses (various armor resistances, twice as much armor and shields), unfortunately they are not yet wide-available.
Haulers should fly Blockade Runners (tech II industrials). Avoid flying tech I indys to 0.0, because they are very slow and vulnerable. You can also check „Group Mining” above.
A Tip or Two
•The Planning- Use Bookmarks
After checking for potential pirate threats, pick an asteroid and plan your mining the Ninja style. Appear and disappear in the mining region through Bookmarks. This way the NPC rats, and any potential pirates will have a hard time catching up with you, even if they do find out that you exist!
The idea is to bookmark your asteroid so that the next time you jump back, you should be roughly 15km away from where you want to go. Simply, set your ship camera so it is looking behind you, straight at the jump point. Start moving toward your asteroid. Go past your asteroid and keep going until you are 15km away from it, and 30km from the station, in a straight line of sight. Once you are there, bookmark the spot. You do this to save loads of time during your mining runs, as jumping from the gate will always dump you 15km before your bookmark.
Last, but not least, try to set a bookmark as close to the station as possible in order to save time on the return trip. A distance of about 8km should do. Okay! Do a test-run to make sure it all works as it should, and adjust your bookmarks if necessary. Time to mine!
•Time and Money Ratio
The goal should be to maximize the 'time : money' ratio. When the hold is full, high tail back to the station. Do a market search if you really want to, get some idea of the general prices, and generally waste your time. However, it would be advisable to at least look around the first time round so you don't go on selling below market price on the whole.
Later you can fire off a quick sell offer; take any half-way decent offer that comes along. This is a far better option especially if the ore you sell is not really that valuable. The margins that can be made by being a careful seller can better be covered by hauling in more ore from the mine itself!
Solo Mining
Solo mining is basically doing all your work by yourself. Though you get all the profits from your job but consequently you mine less ores and there is no one around to help you out in trouble.
Having said that, if planned well, the solo mining can be just as profitable if you set your bookmarks well and warp in and out of the mining zone without letting any pirates keep track of your activities.
The basic thing a solo miner should remember is never to draw attention. It's a sure way to attract trouble. If there are pirate ships around get out of the area before they get close, the scanner can be slow to show the pirate ship so give yourself a margin of at least 30 km to make a safe escape.
Advanced Mining
A newbie would pass the chance to get to more valuable ores in the low security areas, at least until he has a better ship and PvP equipment to face the ever raging pirates without being podded too often.
But the advanced miners, with better ships and skills to boast, don't usually die wondering. If there is profit to be had, it's very likely that they'll go for it. However, even for daredevils, advanced mining in low security areas is a sport that requires much planning and guts.
Selling vs. Refining
If you don't have good refining skills (at least Refining lvl V) refining your ore is not a very good idea. Unless you're manufacturer and need ore for your industry, you'll make better profit selling unprocessed ore. Open the Market and look for buyers offering decent price for the ores you have in your hangar. Then pack your indy with ore, then go and sell it. When you skill up for Refining lvl V, consider training Refinery Efficiency, as this further increases refining output.
When your skills are good enough, you can make profit buying ore and refining it, then selling minerals and thus making profit. This can be another way of making cash.
Using Survey Scanner
Survey Scanner is not necessary to do serious mining, but in 0.0 it may come in handy, as you would like to have full mining yield (when you mine almost depleted asteroid, mining cycle lasts the same, but yield is a lot lower than nominal).
Drone mining
In the world of EvE there are various drones, which make life easier. Of course, mining drones are available, too. Training your Drones skill is essential, as this lets you use more drones. You should consider training Drones to level V and Mining drones. Five mining drones have similar output as Miner II.
AFK mining
As the abbreviation says: away from keyboard mining. Fit an Industrial (huge cargohold) with mining laser and there you go. But beware, there may be neither ship nor pod when you get back
Secondly, asteroids get depleted, so when you get back in, let's say, 30 minutes you may have almost empty cargohold, because asteroid vanished 2 minutes after you started mining it.
Macro mining
One of shadowy techniques, used to make really BIG amounts of money. Some people have written scripts, that do all the work automatically – locking on asteroids, mining, going back to base, running away from rats. While it surely is profitable, it's cheating though. CCP puts a lot of work to make EvE economy working, while this kind of mining results in flooding the market with ore, thus lowering the prices and poisoning game economy that way.
I haven't used such scripts myself, but people did and got banned by GM's for that. I don't recommend using macro mining scripts, as this poisons the game economy – and it's cheating of some sort.
Ores vs Security
Ore - Info
Veldspar - Universal 1.0 and down
Scordite - Universal, 1.0 and down.
Plagioclase - 0.7 and below for Caldari space. 0.4 and below in Minmatar space, 0.7 and below for Amarr space, 0.9 for Gallente
Pyroxeres - 0.9 (quite rarely), but quite common in most systems in the 0.5-0.8 range. You'll find more in a 0.5 than you will in a 0.7 system.
Omber - 0.7 and below, mostly found in 0.5, Gallente/Minmatar space has this. Amarr/Caldari space doesn't.
Kernite - Amarr space, 0.7 and below. In Caldari space, only in 0.4 and below, never in 0.5+. This is why isogen is much more expensive in Caldari space than it is in Amarr...
Jaspet - 0.4 and below. Not found in low sec in Caldari space though. I'm told that you can find this in 0.5 systems in Minmatar space, but I haven't looked to confirm this.
Hemorphite - Same as Hedbergite. Both of these are fairly common in 0.0 space and can be found in low sec.
Hedbergite - 0.2 is the highest I've seen it in, though you may find it in higher sec than that. Certainly not any higher than 0.4 though. Yehaba is an example of a 0.2 system with it.
Arkonor - 0.0 only I have seen Arkonor personally in Curse, Outer Ring, Great Wildlands, old Xetic space.
Bistot - 0.0 only I've seen it in Curse, Outer Ring, GW, Xetic. Pretty sure Fountain has this ore.
Crokite - 0.0 only I've seen it in Stain, Outer Ring, Syndicate, Venal, Vale of the Silent, Pure Blind (tonnes in EC-P8R, 1 jump from safe Empire).
Dark Ochre - 0.0 only Seen it in Syndicate (PF-346, for one jump from Empire mining), Outer Ring
Gneiss - 0.0 only I've seen it in Curse
Spodumain - 0.0 only. Saw some in Providence/Catch and some in Curse.
Mercoxit - 0.0 only, you need special equipment to mine this one (Deep core mining laser)
